Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Maize

The world's biggest grain crop by tonnage, grown mostly to feed livestock and, in the United States, to make fuel ethanol.

Grains · No. 85

  • Not on a critical list
  • HHI 1,693 · moderately concentrated
Grains · Foundation · Matter

The world's biggest grain mostly feeds animals and cars, not people: one bushel in six once went to US ethanol.

Chart: Illustration: Maize

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

First farmed in Central America around 5000 BC, maize is now sown each spring across the US Corn Belt. World output reached 1,218 Mt in 2024.

Three things to know
  1. World maize output rose about 2.5-fold between 1990 and 2024, from 483 to 1,218 million tonnes, faster than wheat or rice.
  2. Four countries, the US, Brazil, Argentina and Ukraine, supplied about 77% of world maize export value in 2024.
  3. By 2011 the US ethanol industry was using one in every six bushels of corn grown worldwide.
The journey
  1. 1 Spring sowingHybrid seed planted in the Corn Belt
  2. 2 HarvestCombined, dried and sent to elevators
  3. 3 ShippingBarge, rail and bulk ship
  4. 4 ProcessingFeed mill, wet mill or ethanol plant
  5. 5 End usesMeat, starch, sweeteners and fuel
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